However when the function is called, this is bound to an empty object.

Confusingly Visual Studio Code debugger has the object in scope bound as this in the debugger window, see attached screenshot, however inspecting the variable in the console lists it as undefined. This looks to me like there is a bug. Is this the case or am I misusing .bind()?

The only thing that seems a little unusual is the async function. I tried searching for issues with async and .bind() but no dice.